It will be found, that this has been done publicly and openly without hatred, ill-will, or revolt, but with the gratitude, the good-will, and esteem of thousands, of whom many, through the blessing of Almighty God, have profited effectually in the chief concern upon which the present hope, and the future welfare of mankind, have their dependence.

Are there those, who, without the thoughtless courage of direct opposition or hostility, remind us only that a cautious and a gradual course must be pursued? the counsel is most salutary: but such persons may learn here, that the course has been thus cautious, the progress gradual, and the encrease also such as has grown up by degrees. It has advanced, under the good Providence of God, with little more than the succours of a Society which exerted its endeavours to this purpose when its powers were limited and scanty, and would gladly now enlarge them to the same end, when its hands are strengthened. Had the encouragement been as hearty and effectual from other branches of the community, it seems probable, from past success obtained with very slender means, that the progress would have been less gradual indeed, but more prosperous and happy."

"It remains but to add here, that no one testimony has been omitted or disguised, by which the merits of the general question respecting the propagation of Christianity in India, can stand affected. It may be right to make this declaration, and to rest the credit of this work upon the truth of the assertion, since it will be found, with some surprize perhaps, how destitute of all solid grounds, those clamours and objections are, which have been so industriously exeited on the subject of diffusing the knowledge and profession of the Christian faith in that country."

The History of the Missions prior to the year 1734 is exceedingly meagre. The period from 1706 to 1716 occupies scarcely three pages. The

readers of the Christian Observer, however, will find the scantiness of this account to a considerable degree supplied in the pages of that work. (See Vol. for 1810, pp. 329, 401, 465, 529, 593, 661, 733, and Vol. for 1811, pp. 1, 65, and 137.) With the exception of a letter from the Rev. William Stevenson, Chaplain of the East-India Company at Madras, which was received in the year 1717, and which contains much important information and many valuable suggestions, there does not appear any trace of the history of these missions in the records of the Society, from the year 1716 to the year 1734. We should be greatly obliged to any correspondent who would point out to us where we might obtain an authentic account of their progress during this long interval. From Mr. Stevenson's letter we shall make a few extracts, which seem no less suited to these times than to those in which they were written.

"Having thus pointed out to you the chief hindrances to the propagation of the Gospel in this part of the world, and the great encouragements we have to attempt it; I shall now propose to you those methods, that I think might be most effectual in prosecuting this necessary work.

To begin then at the very source and foundation of it; it will be thought proper, I suppose, and practicable, so to unite the hearts and endeavours of the several societies in England, Denmark, and Germany, who have engaged to support the Protestant Mission, that laying aside all distrust and jealousy of one another, concerning the point of national honour in carrying on this design, and all partiality and prejudices in favour of their several schemes and opinions, they may agree to promote the glory of God, and the conversion of the Heathen, by all proper methods and persons, without disputing about rights, precedence, or superior direction. Such an union may be begun and con

"For the better management of the whole work, the Missionary who shall reside at Fort St. George, and one of those at Tranquebar, might be invested with some authority over the rest; to direct their progress and stations; determine their differences, and negotiate the affairs of the Mission: and it seems no less necessary, that one of them be impowered to ordain Gentile proselytes to the ministry.

"Besides this fund for expences, it were to be wished that there were colleges erected in Europe for training up Missionaries; and teaching the languages that are necessary for them, viz. the Malabar, Gentoo, Moorish, and Portuguese tongues; in each of which they might be somewhat instructed, before they come abroad; but chiefly in the Malabarian and the Portuguese, which is the Lingua Franca used throughout the coast of Coromandel.

"From such seminaries the Mission must be supplied, from time to time, with at least eight well-qualified Missionaries to reside in India; and if a greater number could be sent out, they might be very usefully employed in so great a harvest as here offers itself.

"Two of these Missionaries will always find sufficient employment at Tranquebar; where a college might be erected for training up catechists and schoolmasters for the service of the Mission. There will be occasion for another Missionary to reside at Fort St. George, (and perhaps for one at Fort St. David,) to educate schoolmasters; take the charge of the schools, to be erected in and about these settlements; and to facilitate a correspondence among the other Missionaries; whose business it must be to travel up into the country with catechists and assistants; there to preach to the natives, settle schools in their villages, and distribute among them abstracts of the

To prevent all disputes about religion, and further the propagation of it among the natives, it will be necessary that not only a short abstract of the Christian doctrine, but likewise a larger catechism, containing all proper (especially practical) instruction, be composed by some judicious members of the Society in Europe, for the use of the Mission: and that no sort of books. be printed, or used by any of the Missionaries, but such as shall be approved and recommended by the Society.

"That the itinerant Missionaries, Catechists, &c. may not be molested nor interrupted in their work, they must be powerfully recommended to the favour and protection of the governors at Fort St. George and Tranquebar; who by their letters testimonial and recommendatory, may procure not only protection from the governors of the inland provinces; but likewise their favour and good will to the Missionaries and their assistants.

"Seeing the whole success of the Mission must depend upon the abilities and good conduct of the persons to be employed in it, the greatest care must be taken in choosing them; that so none may be sent out but such as are not only learned and laborious, but likewise remarkable for their prudence, good temper, and Christian zeal.

It will be necessary for the Missionaries to hold a punctual correspondence, and frequent conferences with one another, on any

particular emergency: and that the itinerant Missionaries keep exact journals of their progress, and transmit copies of them from time to time, both to Fort St. George and Tranquebar, to be thence forwarded to the Society in Europe.

"One of the most effectual ways the Missionaries can take to propagate the Gospel among the natives, and procure their good will, is to begin charity-schools in their villages, and to stay several days at one place among them, in teaching and instructing the more advanced in age; they must leave a schoolmaster in every considerable place, to teach their children to read, write, and cast accompts after their own way; to which villages the Missionaries ought to return again and again, to visit, instruct, and encourage, such as seem inclined to embrace the Christian religion; and may leave a catechist among them when they make converts; or ordain him a minister, and settle a church, in any place where they meet with sufficient success.

"It being absolutely necessary, that they who undertake the conversion of the Heathen live strictly according to that pure and holy religion they teach and profess, the Missionaries must not only set a shining example of piety and all heroic virtue, but they must keep up the strictest order and discipline among those that assist them; lest any disorder in their lives should give offence and scandal to the natives, and obstruct their conversion.

And therefore none ought to be employed as catechists or schoolmasters, till they give sufficient proofs of their sincerity and stedfastness."

It is in the Society's Report for the year 1734, that the first distinct and particular account of its efforts in favour of these Missions occurs. It is there stated, that, "in the year 1710, the Society undertook the management of such charities as were or should be put into their hands, for the support and enlarge

ment of the Protestant Mission, then maintained by the King of Denmark, at Tranquebar, in the East Indies, for the conversion of the Heathen in those parts. Accordingly they from time to time assisted the Missionaries there with money, a printingpress, paper, and other necessaries, (as they were enabled) till the year 1728, when, upon a proposal made by the Rev. Mr. Schultze, one of the Danish Missionaries, to remove to Fort St. George, and there begin a new Mission, for the conversion of the Heathen at Madras, the Society engaged for the support of that new mission, though at an expence that did then far exceed their ability, and which has been considerably encreased since by the addition of two Missionaries, and such other extraordinary charges as have necessarily arisen from the enlargement and prosperity of the Mission. Their casual benefactions to it have hitherto fallen very short of the expence, amounting one year with another to little more than 1461. whereas their disbursements have, communibus annis, exceeded 2801.

These disbursements must have run the Society into a great debt, had they not been enabled to discharge them, by the rents and sale of an estate that was left by will many years ago to propagate the Gospel in the East Indies, as likewise by annual remittances sent thither by Professor Franck, from Halle, and by a charitable gentleman from England, who desires to be unknown.

But all these were not. sufficient, so that the Society have been obliged to apply 2331. to this use, out of the interest due on Mrs. Eliz. Palmer's most generous legacy of 4,000l. left by her to the general designs of the Society, in 1728.

"It is thought requisite to be so particular in this account, that the world may know the real necessities of this Mission for the present, and be excited to relieve them. Besides the expence of it will be growing every year, and there will soon be need of a larger place of Divine

worship, and for more school-houses. However the Society cheerfully rely upon that good Providence which has hitherto prospered this and all other their undertakings, to raise up such a true Christian spirit in this rich and trading nation, as will abundantly supply whatever money shall be wanting to carry on so charitable and glorious a design, as that of enlarging the kingdom of God and of his Christ upon earth."

The Missionaries of the Society at this period, were the Rev. Benjamin Schultze, John Anthony Sartorius, and John Ernest Geisler, and their principal station appears to have been Fort St. George. In the course of their correspondence, which is dated in the year 1733, they remark, "that notwithstanding the great prevalency of irreligion and Popery there, as the principal impediments to propagating true Christianity, they have the comfort of being under the protection of God's good providence, which enables them to surmount all obstacles, and to carry on the difficult work of converting the heathens: that their congregation more and more encreases; that they faithfully instruct and catechize the Malabarian and Portuguese schools, in both languages; that the translation of the Bible in the Gentoo language is now finished, for the benefit of those heathen that use that language, which gives them ground to hope that God will graciously bring his good work to perfection: that hitherto they have the Bible only in the Malabarian tongue, as printed at Tranquebar; but if they should have the pleasure to see it printed in the Gentoo language also, according to the wish and desire of many people, they doubt not to have an opportunity of communicating the Gospel more clearly and fully to another nation of heathens, who, for want of instruction in a language they understand, are withheld from the knowledge of Jesus Christ:" "that the number,they have christened last year amounted to 30;

that the Portuguese school daily increases, and Providence has directed them to a man very capable of instructing them; that the number in both schools is 28, of which 22 are victualled and clothed."

Their Journal contains the following information :—

"The prayer of Manasses was translated into the Warugian or Gen. too language, and thereby was finished the whole Bible, as well the Hebrew as the Greek text. Mr. Schultze received a letter from the Mission College in Copenhagen, wherein they gave leave that the Warugian Bible might be printed in Tranquebar. We invited the Armenian preachers, having before made an acquaintance with them. They were just beginning their evening prayers, which we, at their request, heard. They gave an account of the feast the Papists celebrate upon the mountain of St. Thomas, which being observed with heathen ceremonies and very scandalous doings, the wiser sort of the Papists would fain abolish it, but the Roman people are in general so fond of it, that they would much rather part with the Christian religion than with the feast.

:

"This year were 30 baptized, 6 couples married, 4 persons buried. On Sundays, in the morning from 9 till 11, they preach in the Malabarian language. In the afternoon, from 3 to 4, they preach in German; and from 4 to 5, in the Portuguese language and in the mean time is repeated the Malabarian morning sermon. Wednesdays from 4 till 5, they preach in the Portuguese. Fridays the same, with prayers for the Malabarian children and servants. Every day there is catechizing in Portuguese and Malabarian, between the scholars, schoolmasters, and catechists, one of which in the evening repeats it to the children, as they do likewise all the sermons."

The Danish Missionaries at Tranquebar, at that period six in number, state," that by the grace of God the Gospel in that country is every day

more established; that formerly the Christians were confined to that city only, but now in the whole province there is scarcely a place to be found where God is not worshipped, and even in the land of the king of Tanjore Christ's kingdom is much enlarged: that in the year 1732, 381 proselytes by the Divine assistance have been added to their communion; so that now their congregation consists of 1478 persons, viz. 287 Portuguese, 596 Malabarians, and 645 inhabitants of the kingdom of Tanjore; in all, 1478: that they have 3 Malabaric, and 2 Portuguese schools, of both sexes, contaming 190 children, whose board, clothing, and learning, are given to them gratis: that last year the Dutch of Negapatnam, and the Catechist, by their direction, began to form a Malabaric congregation; and they have reason to hope that God will prosper their Jaudable undertaking: that this year they hope to settle a correspondence with the St. Thomas Christians, by means of a friend of theirs, at present treasurer of Negapatnam, who is going to take upon him the government of Cochin.'

The Society's Report for the year 1735 states, that the Society had given directions for building a church at Fort St. George, 40 feet square, so contrived, that it might be easily enlarged; and that the congregation of new converts was increasing by degrees, fifty heathens having been converted during the preceding year. Mr. Sartorius had made a journey to Tranquebar. "In his journey thither, he had the opportunity of seeing many of the principal places and pagods of the Gentiles, and to converse with them about their worship. He stopped eight days at Fort St David's, and lodged at Governor Hobart's, who was desirous to detain him, and who, with others, were pleased to offer their assistance for settling a new mission there; and if there were many more Missionaries upon the coast, he is sure they would find

labour enough, and, by God's help, meet with good success."

The Missionaries at Tranquebar acknowledge the Society's presents, particularly that of a complete set of new types for printing the Portuguese Bible, with 50 ream of paper, and all the other implements: they printed, last year, in Portuguese, the 12 Minor Prophets; they have likewise prepared the remaining books of the holy Scrip tures, and are now working off some sheets of the book of Joshua."

The Report observes, that "as. the light of the Gospel, by the grace of God, has diffused itself to the adjacent heathen countries, to the dispelling of idolatry and superstition, so the Missionaries have conceived new hopes, that by degrees it will spread itself farther than the neighbouring colonies of the Europeans: for the Dutch, employing a catechist bred at Tranquebar, have gathered from among the Gentiles a smail congregation at Negapatnam, who by baptism were received into the church of Christ. This makes them hope that the fountain of life opened at Madras will flow into the neighbouring desarts, by which means the salvation of many souls will be owing, through the grace of God, to the pious endeavours of the Society's Schools." These schools" being the seminary of the Church in which young people are educated in all those virtues which render them capable of promoting the glory of God, they think the education of children deserves their utmost care, and therefore they have five schools for their instruction in our holy religion; viz. two of the Portuguese congregation, one for boys, the other for girls;-and three for the Malabarian natives; viz. two in Tranque bar for boys and girls, and another for the boys in a village called Poreiar. In the Malabaric schools there are 168 children, not only educated, but wholly maintained, and in the Portuguese schools there are 52 educated, of which 28 are